“Wait—did she really say that?” Emma asked, spritzing on a pungent Victoria’s Secret body mist.
“Well, she might as well have, with how she acted when she left.” Riley switched her voice to imitate Laura’s: “?‘Oh, I’m getting married; Oh, I’m leaving this small-ass town. My life is perfect.’?” She switched back to her normal voice. “It’s actually pretty funny when you think about it. Now that she’s come crawling back.”
The girls burst out laughing and closed up their makeup bags before heading out the door.
Laura stood there, frozen as her mind processed everything that was just said. Sure, maybe she’d been excited to leave, but it wasn’t like she rubbed it in anyone’s face. And why would they think it was funny that her life didn’t go according to plan? These people were supposed to be her friends.
She grabbed her bag and headed out the door. The girls’ comments replayed over and over in her head, making her angrier with each second that passed.
“Hey, you,” Vince said as she ran into him turning the corner. “The cafeteria’s this way. I thought you’d know that?” He shot her a teasing grin.
“Oh sorry, yeah.” She looked up at him with a forced smile, trying to hold back her anger. “I’m actually gonna do some stuff in the library instead. I didn’t realize how much I would need to catch up on.” Or how much my former teammates hated me.
“I hear ya. I feel like every teacher is giving a quiz or test this week. Do you mind if I join you, actually?” He tucked his thumbs between his chest and backpack straps, waiting for her answer.
“In the library?” she asked, flustered.
Vince looked confused. “Yeah.”
“Sure, yeah. Okay.” Even though she would have preferred to be alone, she tucked some stray pieces of hair behind her ears and led him to the room.
The library felt like a time capsule from the seventies. A green shag rug sat beneath four dark wooden tables in the center of the room. A mural, painted by the class of 1975, hung above the tall cases filled with musty old books. Laura and Vince were the only two people inside. Even Mrs. Eleanor, the sassy old librarian who had worked there for thirty years, was at lunch.
“Did you spend your lunch breaks in here before?” Vince asked, unpacking his books from his bag.
“No actually. I never came in here.” It was true. Brian didn’t even know where the library was, and Laura was usually right next to him. “I just figured it’d give me some peace and quiet to study.”
“I see. What are you studying?” He looked over at her books as she unpacked them from her bag.
“Umm . . . everything?” Laura spread her notebooks across the table and sighed at the sight of all her notes from just that day.
“You’re in AP chemistry?” Vince asked, eyeing her textbook.
“Yeah, why?” She clicked her pen.
“It’s just . . .” Vince trailed off.
“It’s just what?” She tightened her grip on her pen.
He ran his hand across his short brown hair and looked at her as if weighing her.
“You’re obviously smart. Why’d you drop out?”
Her eyes widened. “Um, I told you. Brian was heading to LSU, so I went with him.” She could hear herself sounding defensive.
“Yeah, but why? You could have waited.”
Laura felt like she’d been slapped. Vince wasn’t the first one to make this argument with her, and she was sick of hearing it. She felt embarrassed and, quite frankly, a little angry. He had just met her. Who was he to judge? “I did what I needed—make that, wanted—to do,” she said sternly. “We had our future all planned out, and there was no need for me to have a high school diploma.”
“So what made you come back then?” He leaned back in his chair. “Not to Toulouse, I mean. To school.”
“I don’t owe you any explanation, do I?” she huffed.
“Not at all,” he said with a genuine look. “I was just curious.”
“No offense, but I just want to study in quiet, okay?” She opened her notebook to a clean page and shifted in her chair slightly so she was facing away from him. Staring down at the paper, she prayed that she could just get through the rest of the day without appearing as weak as she felt.
Vince raised his hands in a peace-making gesture. “I’m honestly sorry if I offended you in any way,” he said, standing and packing up his books. “I didn’t mean to, I swear.”
“It’s okay,” Laura said guiltily. She hadn’t meant to take her stress out on him. “I’m just really on edge right now.”
“Good luck,” he said, slinging his backpack over his shoulder and walking out.
The door slammed shut behind him, the humming of the exhaust fan the only sound audible. Laura sighed as she silently replayed their conversation in her head. You’re obviously smart, he had said. Sure, she did well in school, but Brian was the one going places. It was never even a question of whose career they would pursue.
There was a hollowness in her stomach that she chalked up to hunger; she had refused Janet’s offer to make her scrambled eggs for breakfast and had opted instead for a chocolate chip granola bar. But even after she ate the sandwich she’d brought with her for lunch, the feeling remained. She couldn’t stop thinking about what Riley and Emma had said. Were they right? Should she not have come back to school? And what Vince said . . . had she needed to drop out of school after they were married? Was Brian’s dream really hers? She’d asked herself these questions before, of course. So why did hearing them from Vince, someone she barely knew, make the questions ring in her head? She blinked and stared down at her French homework.
“Translate the following phrases and match them to the common English saying.”
D’autres fois d’autres manières.
Laura pulled out her pocket French dictionary and began translating, trying to lose herself in work. “Other times, other manners,” she wrote, scanning the right-hand column for the English phrase that matched it. She drew a diagonal line to the words “Times change.”
She looked up at the clock in the library and let out a deep breath, chasing away an image of Vince’s slow smile. They sure do.
11
madison
“CHARLIE WELLINGTON, YOU should really buy a girl a drink first!” Madison had barely sat down on George’s back porch when his golden retriever had put his paws on her shoulders and licked her face. She laughed and kissed his furry forehead.
“Now, how come that doesn’t happen when I slobber on girls?” George laughed at his own joke.
“Well, you’re not as cute as he is,” she said, petting Charlie’s ears.
“I appreciate the honesty,” George said wryly.